Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems provide a set menu of options to callers and navigation paths from one menu option to another depending on the customer's menu choice. Customers respond to an IVR prompt using touch-tone telephones or speak their response if the IVR has an automatic speech response (ASR) interface. The company paying for the IVR typically provides requirements for the IVR design and maintains the IVR. The menu of options may provide information about the company, access to employees, access to customer account information, and access to an operator, etc.
FIGS. 1A and 1B provide an example of a typical bank IVR including some but not all of the lower-level menu options. FIGS. 1A and 1B includes the lower-level menu options to transfer funds from one existing account to another existing account within the same bank. As is evident, from FIGS. 1A and 1B, if a customer desires to transfer funds from one bank account to another, the customer must listen to a series of top-level menu options before the opportunity arises to transfer funds. In step 10, a customer dials the access number for the ABC Bank IVR. In step 20, the customer hears a welcome prompt. In step 30, the customer hears the prompt: “To access new account information, press or say 1 (the keypad number 1 on the touch tone phone). To access existing account information, press or say 2 (the keypad number 2 on the touch tone phone). To access bank information, press or say 3 (the keypad number 3 on the touch tone phone).” Since, the customer desires to transfer funds from an existing account to another existing account, the customer presses or says 2. (Step 50). In step 81, the customer hears the login prompt requesting he authenticate himself by entering or saying his Social Security number and 6 digit pin which may include characters and numbers. If authentication is confirmed by the IVR, the customer hears the prompt “Press or say 1 for Checking Account Information. Press or say 2 for Loan Information. Press or say 3 for Savings Account Information. Press or say 4 to Transfer funds.” (Step 82). As seen from FIG. 1a, there are 3 more options to choose from in step 82. However, the customer does not need to hear these options before he presses 4 on the touch tone phone or says the number 4 to transfer finds from one account to another.
Should the customer select 1 for new account information (step 40), the customer would have heard the prompt “Press or say 1 for information on Santa Claus accounts. Press or say 2 for information on Certificates of Deposit. Press or say 3 for information on opening an ABC Bank credit card. Press or say 4 for information on opening an Individual Retirement Account. Press or say 5 for rates on Certificates of Deposit. Press or Say 6 for rates on Individual Retirement Accounts.” (Step 80).
If the customer selected 3 to access bank information (step 60), the customer would have heard the prompt, “Press or say 1 for Bank Hours. Press or say 2 for Holiday Hours. Press or say 3 for Directions to the Bank. Press or say 4 to Access the Employee Directory. Press or say 5 to Speak to an Operator.” (Step 88).
FIG. 1C is an example of a top-level menu in a unified messaging IVR. In step 100, the customer logs into their unified messaging account using a login account and password, that can be a 4 to 8 digits and may include characters and numbers. In step 110, if the customer successfully logs into their unified messaging account, that is, the unified messaging system authenticates the customer, the IVR presents the customer the following options: “Press or say 1 to access voice mail. Press or say 2 to access email. Press or say 3 to access facsimile messages. You may press or say pound to return to this menu.” If the customer wants to hear their voice mail messages, the customer presses or says 1. (Step 111). Since the customer chose to listen to voice mail messages, in step 120 the IVR presents the following prompt to the customer “You have # new voice mail messages and # saved voice mail messages.” In step 123, the IVR prompts the customer to “Press or say 1 to listen to listen to new voice mail messages. Press or say 2 to listen to saved voice mail messages.” Similar choices are provided when the customer accesses their email (step 112) or fax messages (step 113).
FIG. 1D is an example of a voicemail IVR. In step 130, a student dials his professor's office telephone number. In step 140, the IVR presents the following options: “Press or say 1 to hear Professor Black's office hours. Press or say 2 to speak with Professor Black. Press or say 3 to speak with my administrative assistant.”
Many customers experience frustration with IVR systems that have a lengthy number of menu options, such as, those presented in FIGS. 1A, 1B and 1C or take a long time to complete a task. Due to this, many companies revise and redesign IVR menus to increase the efficiency of the IVR.
At least one known IVR may dynamically customize menus based on past options selected by the customer. This IVR presents personalized menu selections based on information about previous customer behavior from legacy systems, extracts insights about customers based on recent recorded choices and behavior, and matches available service options to recent preferences. Thus, the IVR presents personalized menu selections to sell the customer more products or services that the customer may be interested to hear about based on the customer profile. However, this IVR does not provide the customer the capability to personalize the IVR menus to suit his needs as he sees fit. The customer may not want or appreciate waiting through an interminable menu system and listening to advertisements trying to sell him additional products he no longer wants or needs.
IVR menus, however, do not provide customers the ability to customize an IVR menu to satisfy their particular needs and thereby improve their user experience, such as by instructing the IVR to store a navigation path as a shortcut to a particular type of transaction the next time the customer accesses the IVR. Alternatively, IVR menus do not allow a customer the ability to require different levels of authentication for menus or the ability to hide IVR menu options, while providing the IVR owner with ultimate control over the menu options that may be customized. After all, customer A may not want to listen to all the menu options that customer B needs to listen to since each customer may access the IVR for different reasons.
At least one company writes software to provide an ATM customer the ability to have a “Favorite Transaction” feature, where the user configures a frequently used transaction and accesses this feature at the touch of a button after PIN authentication. For example, if a customer routinely withdraws $100 and wants a receipt, the software will allow the customer to configure this option, thus reducing the customer's time at the ATM. However, such capability is typically limited to specific ATMs with the software to allow a customer to configure this option, i.e., specific local clients, and hence not via any audio interface or from a web interface.
Alternatively on many web browsers, “Favorites” lists a shortcut /URL to a favorite website. Similarly, many desktops allow the user to customize toolbars as a shortcut to different actions in desktop software. However, customization is only for a local client and not on a server based account.